Big, bad, glamorous Bollywood was never her home — and it did not seem to matter much. Nandita Das was courted by the ‘other’ filmmakers — by Deepa Mehta and Nagesh Kukunoor, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan. And now at the fag end of 2008, she is a frequent flier, flitting from Toronto to London to Pusan to New York to Dubai, with a film in her check-in luggage — Firaaq.

Her debut directorial venture, ‘Firaaq’ is about a day in the life of people exactly a month after the 2002 Gujarat riots, when rage and pain have been seemingly quelled, but not quite. During a stopover in Delhi, Das says, “It is a work of fiction, based on a thousand true stories.”

And in an industry where actresses seldom turn filmmakers, how did the movie happen? “I think it had to do with waking up to newspapers filled with stories of violence. It probably even went back to growing up in a liberal, secular environment and gradually finding oneself in the midst of prejudices,” says the daughter of artist Jatin Das.

“I didn’t start off by wanting to direct and looking for stories; instead the many stories inside me almost compelled me to direct,” says the actor-filmmaker-social activist, who has often had a cause rather than a blockbuster up her handloom sleeve.

And for the cast, she has got the veterans of art-house cinema, Naseeruddin Shah, Deepti Naval and Paresh Rawal, along with Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra and Shahana Goswami. “The little boy Samad, who plays a lost child looking for his father, has been quite a find,” she says.

But, no, Das did not cast herself. “I didn’t want to add to my already challenging task of direction. People also suggested that I do a Hitchcock or Subhash Ghai and appear in a cameo, but in Firaaq there is no moment when one can afford to get distracted and come out of the story and its characters to see the director. I am glad I didn’t act in Firaaq,” she smiles.

Before the film releases in India in January 2009, it will be shown at the Kolkata Film Festival and then at the Kerala International Film Festival, and Das is candid about the benefits of the whole festival rigmarole: “A film like this doesn’t have a big marketing budget and getting some buzz is important for its promotion. The festivals give it some attention.”

And once it is released in India, does she fear a tsunami of controversy to follow, since it deals with the riots and their aftermath? “It doesn’t point fingers at someone or preach, giving simplistic answers to complex problems. It is about the fierce and delicate emotions that people go through in times of fear and violence,” says Das, “And I believe there are stories that need to be told and heard, even though there may not be too many telling it or wanting to hear it. And there is a collective need to understand violence.”

Das is game to direct another movie, but now, euphoric and jetlagged, she just wants to catch up on sleep and read some books before taking a flight out to another festival.